IBYCUS
(SIXTH CENTURY B.C.)
Greek lyric poet. Ibycus sprang
from a noble family of Rhegium in Magna
Grecia. His lyrical narrative poems liberally endowed myths with pederasty. Refusing to become a tyrant at home, he went
to the court of the pederastic tyrant Polycrates. Wealthy from commerce and piracy, Polycrates raised Samos to the forefront of Hellenic art and literature. In fear
of conspiracies, he burned the palestrae
(gymnasia), forcing Pythagoras into exile,
where he became one of the first
homosexual exiles and emigres. Soon thereafter the Persians crucified him in 522 and
sentIbycus and Simonidesinto exile, where
Ibycus sang of love in his old age--espedally of love for the tyrant's son.
The Alexandrian scholars collected his poems in seven books: choral
poems and encomia, and a great many love
poems, hardly any of which have survived
because of the ravages of time and Christian disapprobation. Cicero deemed him
more amorous than Sappho's compatriot
Alcaeus-perhaps the first pederastic poet,
or even Anacreon-and the Greek Anthol·
ogy described him as one who "culled the
sweet bloom of Persuasion and of the love
of lads." Because Horace, Catullus, and
some poets of the Greek Anthology imitated him, one can derive a fair picture of
his carefree, insouciant, promiscuous loves.
To one of his eromenoi he wrote: "Euryalus, offshoot of charming graces, object of
the fair-haired maidens' care, Cypris and
mild-eyed Persuasion have reared you in
the midst of rosy flowers" (fro 6).
William A. Percy
IDENTITY
Individual identity may be defined as a sense of the unity and persistence of personality or core consciousness,
an awareness of a stable framework of self,
related to but separate from the surrounding environment. One of the pitfalls of the
term is that the existence of a sense of
identity as so described may be considered
tantamount to proof that such a unitary,
persistent, stable self is an actual fact. This
last assumption has sometimes been rejected (e.g., by Buddhists). Psychologically,
identity seems to be much more fluid
objectively than subjectively. While the
word is in common circulation, it remains
an ambiguous term, and even to some
psychologists a dangerously misleading
one.
Basic Features. In 1690 the English philosopher John Locke wrote of identity in the psychological sense as "that
sameness of rational being." By 1820
Washington Irving had posited the idea of
loss of identity in the case of a character
who was not sure whether he was himself
or another person. In the 1960s the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson popularized the notion of an "identity crisis" as an "interval
between youth and adulthood" when one
seeks to achieve an inner and outer coherence following a break away from the
parent-derived identity and the beginnings
of a new adult sense of self.
In addition to the concept of an
individual identity, there is the notion of a
group-derivedbut individually self-applied
social identity which may be lifelong (e.g.,
being a female or an Italian) or may change
over time (e.g., being a football player or a
stockbroker). Group-derived identities are
seldom unitary in any sense, as each indi-
•
IDENTITY
vidual feels a part of more than one group.
A modem phenomenon seems to be an
increasing tendency to build social identities around subcultures rather than local
geographic units, nations, classes, and
occupations.
Sexual Aspects. Today, some gay
liberation spokespeople perceive the process of coming out as one of forging a gay
identity which supersedes or takes precedence over all other group-derived identity; others reject this view as reflecting an
excessive separatism, regarding the homosexual element in personality as not radically sundered from the identity-deriving
elements predominant in heterosexuals.
The gay-identity position has also come
under attack from a neo-nominalism that
insists that scientifically there is no such
thing as a "homosexual" as a noun, but
rather the word can only be used as an
adjective describing a kind of behavior
open to any human being; the advocates of
this position would not, however, deny
the existence of a (sub)culturally-constructed sense of identity independent of
scientific standing.
Some prefer to address the question in terms of self-concept. Yet is the self
unitary; or a bundle of subselves; or lacking in substance altogether? The second
and third formulations may explain some
aspects of cognitive dissonance with respect to homosexuality, as seen in the case
of the late Roy Cohn, a protagonist in the
McCarthy hearings, who seemed both to
deny and to affirm his homosexuality. This
phenomenon may be also be explained if
one thinks of the self as a mediator between public identity or persona (/normal") and the private identity (in some
individuals, expressed only in fantasies).
There are other individuals, such as the
poet John Berryman (1914-1972), whose
homosexual· side emerges only inalco.
hoHc bouts, but here it may be more properly said that it was his behavior which
was otherwise repressed, not his identity.
If Berryman had acted homosexually
whether drunk or sober, but only felt
himself to be gay when drunk, then one
could speak of a repressed identity.
Homosexual behavior need not
be related to identity at aU, but may be
seen as a casual or situational or revenue·
producing activity only. To take a clear
case, the macho prisonerwho uses another
male as a substitute female until he is
released never deals with any sense of
homosexual identity, peripheral or central, public or private. There seems to be a
requirement for a socially mediated model
of "homosexual identity" which an individual can conceive of applying to himself
before the question can even arise. Perhaps
relevant here is the question of a "bisexual
identity" which has often arisen in indio
viduals without reference to a group or
subculture at aU, but based on models
provided by thc general culture.
In the integrative process that
occurs with the acknowledgement of one's
homosexual identity and its management
in the course of life, it may have varying
degrees of centrality. How does homosexuality migrate from one personality
region, say from a peripheral one to a
central one and then out again? How does
it achieve the status of a master identity,
only perhaps to become less dominant
later? Perhaps such questions must await
answers to more preliminary enigmas such
as how sexual orientationitself can change
over the course of time.
Clearly many questions remain
for further research. Since the matters
discussed in this article are among the
thorniest addressed by the human sciences,
one cannot expect that perfect clarity will
be soon achieved-and perhaps it never
will.
574
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BIBLIOGRAPHY. Vivienne C. Cass,
"Homosexual Identity: A Concept in
Need of Definition, II TournaI of Homosexuality, 9:2-3 (1983-841,105-26;
William Du Bay, Gay Identity: The Self
Under Ban, Jefferson: McFarland, 1987;
Jon Elster, ed., The Multiple Self,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1986; Barbara Ponse, Identities in the
Lesbian World: The Social Construction
IMMIGRATION
of Self, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
'
1978; Richard R. Troiden, Gay and
Lesbian Identity: A Sociological
Analysis, Dix Hills, N}: General Hall
19881 Thomas S. Weinberg, Gay Men:
Gay Selves: The Social Construction of
Homosexual Identities, New York:
Irvington Press, 1983.
+
others who are emotionally and socially
involved with them.
Conceptually, the immaturity
theory makes an incongruous contrastwith
its opposite, satiation.
Stephen Donaldson
IMMATURITY THEORY
When confronted with a
teenager's homosexuality or lesbianism,
parents will often exclaim, "It's just a
phase. Slbe will grow out of it!' While this
view reflects popular ideas of personality
growth, it also finds a learned prop in the
psychoanalytic: idea that human bisexual·
ity is a halfway house along a path that is
always directed toward a final goal of
heterosexual maturity. In keeping with
this premise the persistence of a homosexual pattern in adult life is ascribed to
"arrested development."
The immaturity notion also accords with the folkloric view that a "little
experimentation" is permissible, as long
as it does not fibecome ahabit." This motif
borders on the concept of deviant sex as
self·indulgence, a flight from the serious
responsibilities imposed by raising a family. In clinical sessions psychiatrists have
had recourse to the reproach of immaturity as a lever to induce young clients to
give up their homosexuality.
Of course there are individuals
who try a few homosexual acts in youth
and, having then found that this is not
where their major interest lies, come to
live essentially heterosexual lives. Other
young people, aware of the stigma that
still attaches to homosexuality, cling to
the immaturity notion as a device of de·
nial, refusing to accept as long as they can
their homosexual orientation. In the reo
cent past, some of these persons would
contract a heterosexual marriage in hopes
of putting the "immaturity" behind them.
Such expedients have rarely been successful. This denial can result in unhappiness
both for those who embrace it and for
IMMIGRATION
Toclay's world has become concerned with immigration, not only because millions have migrated but also
because the rise ofthe modern state and its
definition of nationality has made the
matterfraught with complications. Homosexuals live in a certain degree of tension
with the environing society and have fewer
ties to keep them rooted in the communi·
ties where they grew up. For this reason,
they tend to migrate, not just to large cities
with their convenient anonymity, but even
across national borders. In the past, conflict with the law often sent homosexual
men in precipitous flight to escape long
prison terms or even a lynch mob, while
voluntary exile amounted to a commuta·
tion of a severe penalty: in either case the
individual whose homosexual activity was
exposed ceased to be a member of society.
If he was fortunate, he might settle in
another part of world where his past was
unknown and could not easily be discovered; and here, too, he could resume the
series of casual liaisons that had become
part of his lifestyle.
A visit of few days as part of a
vacation trip is technically an act of
immigration, even if the foreigner has no
intention of residing permanently or becoming a citizen of the host country; and
many are the homosexuals who either
prefer exotic sexual partners or, possessing
discretionary income but without families to accompany them, enjoy travel
abroad, even to distant lands, in search of
eroticadventures orpleasures denied them
in the communities where they reside.
The Evolution ofAmerican Law.
Homosexuality as an issue for the authori·
ties that control immigration, in the United
States the Immigration and Naturaliza·
575
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